ND Burma
ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.
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- FROM THEGROUND UP
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13-year-old boy killed by artillery fire in Mindat
/in NewsThe boy was hit as he and his family were fleeing an approaching military convoy travelling along the Mindat-Matupi road
A 13-year-old boy was killed in Chin State’s Mindat Township on Monday after he was hit by an artillery shell fired by regime forces travelling on the Mindat-Matupi road, according to local resistance sources.
The victim, eighth-grade student Mg Hung Ki, died while he and his family were trying to flee junta troops approaching their village, the sources said.
“His family’s house was on the side of the road, so they ran down into a valley to hide. That’s when one of the military’s artillery shells hit him,” said Yaw Marn, the spokesperson for the Mindat chapter of the Chinland Defence Force (CDF).
“He died instantly,” he added.
Several houses were also destroyed in the attack, according to the CDF Mindat spokesperson.
The forces that opened fire on the village were part of a convoy of more than 70 military vehicles, including two tanks, that has been going back and forth along the Mindat-Matupi road since early January.
The convoy has faced repeated attacks from resistance forces. At least 20 regime troops were killed as it was returning to Mindat from Matupi in late January, according to Yaw Marn.
“The junta convoy was on its way back from Matupi when it was hit by a series of explosions,” he said, adding that the soldiers retaliated by firing indiscriminately into nearby villages.
“They just blindly opened fire along the way. So many shells fell into villages,” he told Myanmar Now.
It took the convoy 16 days to travel from Matupi to Mindat—a journey that can usually be made in a single day—due to the constant harassment by resistance fighters, he said.
When the convoy finally reached Mindat at around 8pm on Tuesday, troops from Light Infantry Battalion 274 fired heavy artillery in the direction of villages north of the town, according to Yaw Marn.
“It felt like the earth was shaking,” he said, noting that the sound could be heard more than 30km away.
Mindat.jpg
Nearly 10,000 civilians have been displaced in Mindat Township due to the fighting, according to local relief groups. Most are said to be experiencing severe shortages of food and medicine.
The military, which cut off internet access in the township several months ago, has also disrupted food supply chains in an effort to bring the area under its control.
The township has been under martial law since May 13.
According to a statement released by the United Nations Secretary General’s country representative for Myanmar on February 7, at least 114 minors between the ages of 3 and 17 have been killed by the military since last year’s coup.
Myanmar Now News
The Karenni Human Rights Group and The Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma Release a New Joint Report Calling for Accountability for Human Rights Violations Committed in Karenni (Kayah) State
/in Press Releases and Statements9 February 2022
For Immediate Release
Today, the Karenni Human Rights Group (KnHRG) and the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma) with supporting data from a local Karenni women’s organization release a new briefing paper, “The World Must Know,” which finds evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by the military junta in Karenni (Kayah) State. We condemn the ongoing escalation of targeted attacks against civilians and call for an immediate cessation in violence.
Fighting in Karenni (Kayah) State began intensifying in May 2021. Throughout the year, Myanmar’s smallest state faced increasing military offensives which isolated the civilian population and forced over one quarter to flee for safety. The ‘Christmas Eve massacre’ on 24 December 2021, truly revealed the horrors the military junta was capable of when approximately 40 villages were arrested and set on fire in vehicles where they were burned alive. Indeed, the world must know the crimes the military has committed and the unlawful means which they have adopted to terrorize innocent people.
“The acts by these soldiers are not comparable to anything – they are not human. There are no words for the crimes they have committed which are so far outside the bounds of law. The world must know the cruel acts which have taken place in our Kayah State,” said the sister of one of the victims of the Christmas Eve massacre in an interview with ND-Burma.
Civilians are continuing to flee terrifying conditions in their homelands which have forced them to abandon their livelihoods. Thousands have been internally displaced and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Rather than respond to the needs of local people, the regime has deployed airstrikes on IDP camps and taken concrete steps to deliberately further intimidate them. These atrocities are being perpetrated by the junta in a blatant disregard for the rule of law.
The international community must take action to hold the military junta accountable for their crimes. A failure to respond with serious repercussions sends a signal to the junta that they are invincible. Since attempting to harbor power in a failed coup last year, the generals have made it very clear that they have no interest in preserving the rights and freedoms of citizens.
Coup leader, Min Aung Hlaing, is a war-criminal guilty of mass crimes including those which amounts to genocide. He, and other high-level officials must be prosecuted at the maximum level to send a strong message that widespread human rights violations are a crime and those responsible will be held accountable.
For more information:
Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma
NDBoffice@protonmail.com
Karenni Human Rights Group
banya1978@protonmail.com
Karenni Human Rights Group is a civil society organization dedicated to reporting the current situation on the ground in Karenni state and the human rights abuses committed by the Burmese junta.
ND-Burma is a network that consists of 13-member organisations who represent a range of ethnic nationalities, women and former political prisoners. ND-Burma member organisations have been documenting human rights abuses and fighting for justice for victims since 2004. The network consists of nine Full Members and four Affiliate Members as follows:
Full Members
Affiliate Members:
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“The World Must Know”
/in Briefing Papers, ND-Burma's ReportsThe Myanmar Army has a long history of brutal repression. For over 70-years, civil war has been raging in the country. Despite long-standing attempts for dialogue with the international community, civil society organizations, and ethnic revolution groups (EROs), the regime has consistently failed to listen to the voices of those existing outside of its deeply flawed architecture. The junta has endlessly violated international laws and perpetuated atrocities against civilian populations.
One year ago, on 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military toppled a short-lived democratic period. The military arrested the nation’s elected leaders and attempted a coup on the basis of unproven claims of electoral fraud. These actions were illegal and reflective of the junta’s greed through a deliberate attempt at seizing power. Immediately after, the military junta ignited a campaign of violence against unarmed, innocent civilians, committing grave systematic human rights violations.
Since the failed coup, countless protesters have been shot, civilians killed in their own homes, and resistance fighters hunted down. Millions have been pushed to the brink of poverty as economic stability plummets. The rule of law and fundamental freedoms have been desolated.
Karenni (Kayah) State is among the many states and regionns in Myanmar which has been overwhelmed by expanding military operations. This joint briefing paper produced by the Karenni Human Rights Group (KnHRG) and the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma), in conjunction with data and insights from a local women’s organization who prefers to remain anonymous for security reasons, will provide summary analysis of the situation in Karenni (Kayah) State. The synopsis of the events from the beginning of 2021 to January 2022 are contextualized with interviews from ND-Burma conducted with victims of the junta’s attacks.
The Human Rights Foundation of Monland Condemns Rising Cases of Arbitrary Arrests & Calls for Immediate End to Sentencing of Political Prisoners
/in Member statements8 February 2022
The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) condemns the ongoing arbitrary arrest of innocent civilians and subsequent outlandish sentencing of political prisoners by the military junta. By the end of 2021, over 2500 people in target areas of Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi regions were unlawfully arrested and detained. Over the last week alone, HURFOM documented 19 arbitrary arrests. Arbitrary arrest is a human rights violation as it deprives civilians of their liberty to live protected under the law with the right to legal counsel.
According to the Dawei Political Prisoners Network, three Dawei women who were arrested on suspicion of associating with local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) were sentenced on 4 February 2022 to nine years each in prison. Daw Aye Aye Khaing, a 51-year-old Tailor, Daw Mya Mya Lwin, a 52-year-old market vendor, and Daw Mya Mya Soe, 34, were arrested in August 2021 and charged under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code and Section 52 (c) of the Anti-Terrorism Law. They were sentenced and charged during closed-door military court hearings which the press and general public are denied entrance to. The lack of transparency speaks to the levels of corruption the regime is capable of.
Eight women political prisoners from Dawei Prison, including these three, who were arrested on suspicion of associating with PDFs, were sentenced to between two and nine years in prison each by the junta-run court in Dawei:
Daw Aye Aye Khine, 9 years
Daw Mya Mya Lwin, 9 years
Daw Mya Mya Soe, 9 years
Ma Theint Theint Zin Phu, Dawei Tech University Student, 2 years and continued trial
Ma Lin Myat Moe, 2 years
Ma Hnin Hnin Yu, 2 years
Ma Myat Myat, 2 years
Daw Thet Thet Htwe, 2 years
A family member of one of the women told HURFOM: “It is too much to be sentenced to nine years in prison on terrorism charges. They are not terrorists.”
Following their failed coup, the military junta has struggled to maintain control as the civilian population has spearheaded a powerful Spring Revolution in pursuit of safeguarding their fundamental rights and freedoms.
The continuation of arbitrary arrests and abductions is the result of the junta’s failed efforts to detain democracy activists in an attempt to stifle the pro-democracy movement. This will not succeed. Nothing can quiet the voices of the people in Burma whose long-time struggle for peace and freedom will outlast the junta’s incessant violence.
HURFOM calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and for the military junta to be held accountable by the international community for their mass crimes against humanity and unjust treatment of innocent civilians. The leaders of the failed coup, and those complicit in the junta’s crimes must be held responsible and punished according to the rule of law for their actions through international accountability mechanisms.
Media Contact
Nai Aue Mon, HURFOM Program Director
Email: info@rehmonnya.org
Signal: +66 86 167 9741
Human Rights Situation in Myanmar: Post-Coup(January31- February 6)2022
/in HR SituationThe junta is deeply unpopulation in Myanmar and has been for many years. Since their attempt at seizing power, they have become even more disliked. In studies conducted, confidence in Myanmar’s ‘leadership’ dropped 60 points in 2021 with a record number of people stating they don’t feel safe walking alone at night. The gallup poll found this drop in confidence to be the largest gap of any country in the last 15 years.
The international community has rightfully so been accused of ‘sitting and watching’ Myanmar’s economic, political, and social turmoil. Over 1500 people have been killed, thousands more unlawfully detained and evading arrest. Alongside record numbers of Tatmadaw soldiers defecting, the pr-democracy is alive and well in Myanmar. Yet, rather than willfully intervene to stop the violence and hold the junta leaders responsible, it seems that very often, the global actors have turned the other way.
As Rohingya human rights and democracy activist, Wai Wai Nu, stated so well in her appropriately tired editorial, The World Has Failed to Stand with Myanmar, the failure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to act on the situation inside the country represents a “historic lack of support.” Since 1 February, the UNSC has met only behind closed doors and failed to engage with civil society groups who have been vocal in their calls for action and accountability.
The messaging has been clear from the people, and yet surprisingly the United Nations Special Envoy, Dr Noeleen Heyzer made comments during an interview with Channel News Asia suggesting power sharing with the Myanmar junta. Civil society rejected her comments. She should support solutions by the people who have made clear that their path forward does not include a dialogue with a regime with blood on its hands. A global arms embargo must be supported, alongside sanctions and an immediate referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
According to the Karen National Union, the Myanmar military has continued attacking the Karen National Liberation Army in a series of air and ground strikes which have led to the displacement of thousands of villagers. Women, children and the elderly remain extremely vulnerable and at risk. Naw K’nyaw Paw of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) expressed concern over the attacks, citing the many difficulties displaced people have been forced to contend with. KWO also documented two harrowing cases of a woman and child dying due to indiscriminate fire by the military junta. On 29 January, mortar shelling killed a 3-month old baby and a 20 year old woman. The next day, more firing destroyed a woman and injured an elderly woman who was struck on her head and chest.
The Karen Human Rights Group estimates over 100 000 people newly displaced between April 2021 and January 2022. The ongoing airstrikes have prevented villagers from being able to safely return home. The Tatmadaw has also cruelly scattered landmines throughout civilian areas, burned their homes and stolen livestock and their possessions.
KAYAH (KARENNI)
In January of this year alone, at least 45 people were killed by the military junta in Kayah (Karenni) State. Rights organizations including the Karenni Human Rights Groups have documented state-wide atrocities and condemned them in the harshest terms calling these attacks ‘inhumane’ and expressing commitment to prosecute perpetrators in the future. Among the victims, six died when they were shot at with airstrikes and four died while suffering from heart failure during artillery firing. Several other bodies found had evidence of serious trauma, including head wounds and visible lacerations. Men, women and children killed have been found in the ditches, and on the road. Almost 200 people in Kayah (Karenni) State have been murdered by the junta.
The Myanmar military has denied all involvement in the attacks and deferred responsibility without evidence to the civilian armed defense forces and Kayah (Karenni) based ethnic armed organizations. Clashes between the regime and joint Karenni forces have displaced almost 200 000 people. The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force stated that their forces have administrative control over 90% of territory in the State.
SAGAING REGION
Homes belonging to innocent villagers in Sagaing region are being burned to the ground by the Myanmar junta. On 2 February, more than 400 homes were razed by junta soldiers who accused residents of harboring civilian armed defense forces. One village said his whole village of Mwe Tone is now completely gone as 220 of the 265 homes were scorched. Witnesses recounted what’s left as ‘a pile of ashes.’ When the arson began, residents had no time to grab their belongings or livestock.
This attack is only the latest in a brutal onslaught of offensives which have taken place in Sagaing region over the last year. The displacement and indiscriminate attacks have made villagers more resentful and have garnered stronger support for anti-coup forces.
Hundreds of homes razed amid scorched earth campaign in Myanmar’s Sagaing region
/in NewsPro-junta forces have torched more than 1,000 homes in four villages over five days.
Junta troops and pro-military militiamen in Myanmar’s Sagaing region burned down more than 700 homes in Pale township over the weekend, according to sources, amid a scorched earth campaign that has left some 1,100 buildings destroyed in four neighboring villages over the span of five days.
On the evening of Feb. 4 soldiers and members of the Pyu Saw Htee militia entered the villages of Hlaw Gar and Kine Twin, sending inhabitants fleeing, residents told RFA’s Myanmar Service. Villagers who hid near the area said they saw fighters from the two groups loot homes before setting them alight, destroying around 500 of 1,000 homes in Hlaw Gar and some 200 of 260 in Kine Twin.
“They burned down the homes in Kine Twin village … and then they moved north. Pyu Saw Htee forces entered Hlaw Gar village around 10:30 p.m. and raided the homes. They seized the property they wanted and transported it to Inn Ma Htee village, where the military is training Pyu Saw Htee members,” said a villager from Hlaw Gar, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
“Around 1 a.m., Pyu Saw Htee members in plainclothes started burning the homes. The military soldiers wearing uniforms extinguished the fire,” he added, suggesting that troops did not want to be seen carrying out arson.
Sources told RFA that residents remain too frightened to return to the area because junta troops had left “secret monitors” to watch civilian movements.
They said the weekend arson was the latest in a series of burnings in response to a Jan. 23 attack by local anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) militiamen on the military camp used to train members of the Pyu Saw Htee in Inn Ma Htee village.
Within the space of five days, the military and pro-junta militia members have razed buildings in four villages lying within six miles of each other. At least 400 structures were burned on Jan. 31 in Mwe Tone and Pan villages, which lie just northwest of Hlaw Gar and Kine Twin.
A 40-year-old resident of Kine Twin village who lost his home over the weekend told RFA he had been on the run for five days straight.
“I have had to temporarily flee the village since the [PDF] attack on Inn Ma Htee village. Finally, I decided not to return and ran for my life,” said the villager, who declined to be named.
“The people [of Kine Twin] are now staying in nearby villages or in the woods. They fled on their carts with their cattle and are now sheltering under trees. … The weather is so cold. It is very challenging for elderly people. No one has slept for days.”
The resident said that the refugees feel insecure and afraid that they will be targeted by airstrikes, which the military increasingly employs against villages it sees as friendly to the PDF.
The bodies of 11 people were discovered in Myinmu township’s Padoke Tine village on Feb. 4, days after the military carried out an airstrike on a graduation ceremony for PDF recruits with five helicopters, killing some 20 civilians, sources told RFA last week.
A PDF member from Pale township told RFA that the recent incidents show that the military will use whatever means it can to crush anti-junta forces.
“I think they are trying to secure the villages around In Ma Htee village. I think they are burning down homes in all the villages where they think PDF forces are hiding,” he said.
“This is brutal, and they are victimizing the local citizens. But they will pay for what they have done. … We are always waiting for the right time to strike back at them.”
On the evening of Feb. 5, PDF forces led an attack on the police station in Pale town center and engaged with security forces. The following morning, the military fired artillery on villages in the surrounding area that they accuse of providing haven to PDF fighters, sources told RFA on Monday.
Residents said that more than 10,000 people from the villages of Nyaunggone, Kangyi, Phoe Kone, Nyaung Kan, Ywa Tha, Leik Kone, Yahtin, Aye Gone, Mya Gone and Yoe have fled their homes since Jan. 31.
“The shelling blast from the junta troops’ artillery fire burned homes. After the fire, people in town were too afraid to stay. They packed up their valuables and took shelter in nearby monasteries,” said one resident of Pale town.
Later, around 30 soldiers arrived in Pale town and nearby villages and arrested those who remained or took them for interrogation, said Phoe Thar, a member of the Black Panther PDF group.
“We heard they fired guns, beat the adult males and seized mobile phones, but I heard those who got arrested were released after a while. They spread the military columns and cleared the nearby area. All the people from the villages on their operation route have fled. Some villages are deserted now.”
Repeated attempts by RFA to reach junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on reports that the military and Pyu Saw Htee fighters had been setting homes on fire in Pale township went unanswered over the weekend and on Monday.
On Sunday, the junta announced that security forces and troops from the Sagaing regional command division were working together in response to the attacks on the Pale police station.
According to the research group Data for Myanmar, which documents the impact of armed conflict in the country, junta forces have burned down at least 3,379 homes from 126 villages and townships in nine regions and states in the year since the military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup. More than 1,400 of the homes are in Sagaing region, the group said.
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
RFA News